But how could she have helped herself? I asked, imagining the sneers and the laughter, the adulation of the toadies, the scepticism of the professional poet.
1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, Baseball Joe on the School Nine Chapter 1
"Go on, Hiram, show 'em what you can do," urged Luke Fodick, who was a sort of toady to Hiram Shell, the school bully, if ever there was one.
Charles Dickens
Before I had been standing at the window five minutes, they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs.